1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Amphibolite
AMPHIBOLITE, the name given to a rock consisting mainly of amphibole (hornblende), the use of the term being restricted, however, to metamorphic rocks. Holocrystalline plutonic igneous rocks composed essentially of hornblende are known as hornblendites. As is the case with most petrological terms the exact connotation is not very strictly defined; most authors allow that accessory minerals such as felspar, garnet, augite and quartz may be present in variable and often considerable amount. A foliated or schistose structure, though often developed in these rocks, is not universal. The hornblende is usually dark green (actinolite) but may be nearly black in the hand specimen; in the microscopic slide it is commonly green of various shades, but may be brown, blue or nearly colourless. It frequently occurs in elongated bladed prisms, but rarely shows good crystal faces. The term hornblende-schist is employed by many writers as nearly synonymous with amphibolite; most hornblende-schists contain felspar and iron oxides, while sphene, rutile, quartz and apatite are rarely absent. Reddish garnets are often conspicuous in the rocks of this group (garnet-amphibolites), and when in addition a green-coloured augite occurs the rocks are intimately allied to the hornblende-eclogites. Epidote also, in yellow grains, is common (epidote-amphibolites), and in these rocks the hornblende may be of the blue and richly pleochroic variety known as glaucophane (glaucophane-epidote-schists). Hornblende-schists containing dark green ferriferous hornblende (grünerite-schists) are abundant in some parts of North America. Tremolite-schists consist essentially of white or very pale green amphibole; occasionally they are black from the presence of numerous minute grains of iron oxide or of graphite. Many tremolite-schists contain much talc and chlorite, and as these rocks have been derived from peridotites they not infrequently show residual grains of olivine. Nephrite (Gr. νεφρός, a kidney) is a very compact, hardly schistose amphibolite, consisting of fine interwoven fibres of hornblende. Among other accessory minerals biotite, chlorite, talc, scapolite and tourmaline may be mentioned; if abundant they give rise to special varieties such as biotite-amphibolite, &c.
The amphibolites are typical rocks of the metamorphic group and as such attain a large development in all regions of crystalline schists and gneisses such as the Alps, Ardennes, Harz, Scottish Highlands, and the Lakes district of North America. They occur in two ways, viz. as large circular or elliptical areas which mark the site of old plutonic stocks or bosses of basic rock, and as long narrow strips intercalated among outcrops of other metamorphic rocks. Regarded from the point of view of their origin they fall into two groups, the ortho-amphibolites, which are modified igneous rocks, and the para-amphibolites, which are altered sediments. The former are far the more common. Igneous rocks which contain much augite (e.g. dolerites, gabbros, diabases, pyroxenites and many peridotites) are usually converted into amphibolites when they are subjected to pressure and interstitial movements during earth-folding. If felspar be present also, epidote may form, while part of the felspar recrystallizes as a species of the same mineral richer in alkalies or as mica. Olivine and ilmenite, the other common constituents of these rocks, may, alone or in conjunction with the above-named minerals, yield garnet, talc, sphene, rutile, &c. There is little or no alteration in the bulk composition of the rock, but its component elements enter into new combinations. Chemical analysis, accordingly, will often enable us to identify an igneous rock (diabase, &c.) under the guise of an amphibolite. The transformation of the rock may be complete, so that no trace is left of the original structures or minerals. Very often, however, it is only partial, and by obtaining a sufficiently large number of specimens a series of intermediate or transitional stages may be studied; these prove conclusively the nature of the process, though its causes are less clearly understood. Green hornblende may be seen gradually replacing augite, at first in needle-like crystals, for which gradually more compact masses are substituted. The felspar breaks up into a mosaic in which albite, epidote or zoisite, quartz and garnet may often be identified. Biotite and primary hornblende suffer comparatively little change; olivine disappears, and garnet, talc and tremolite or anthophyllite take its place. The original structures of this group of rocks (ophitic, porphyritic, poikilitic, vesicular, &c.) gradually fade away, and merge into those of the metamorphic amphibolites. Even when the greater part of the rock mass has suffered complete reconstruction, kernels or phacoids may remain, showing the old igneous structures, though the minerals are greatly altered. The transitional stages from gabbro or diabase to amphibolite are so common that they form a widespread and important group of rocks, which have been described under the names greenstone, greenstone-schist, flaser-gabbro, saussurite-gabbro, meta-diabase, &c. The ortho-amphibolites also include a small group of igneous rocks, which have a foliated or banded structure due to movements and pressure during consolidation, e.g. foliated diorite or diorite-schist.
The sedimentary amphibolites or para-amphibolites, less common than those above described, are frequent in some districts, such as the northern Alps, southern highlands of Scotland, Green Mountains, U.S.A. Many of them have been ash-beds, and their conversion into hornblende-schists follows exactly similar stages to those exemplified by basic crystalline igneous rocks. Others have been greywackes of varied composition with epidote, chlorite, felspar, quartz, iron oxides, &c., and may have been mixed with volcanic materials, or may be partly derived from the disintegration of basic rocks. When they are most metamorphosed they are often very hard to distinguish from igneous hornblende-schists; yet they rarely fail to reveal signs of bedding, pebbly structure, sedimentary banding and gradual transition into undoubtedly sedimentary types of gneiss and schist. Deposits containing dolomite and siderite also readily yield amphibolites (tremolite-schists, grünerite-schists, &c.) especially where there has been a certain amount of contact metamorphism by adjacent granitic masses. (J. S. F.)